Fire Song (City of Dragons) (18 page)

“You’re really fucking stupid aren’t you?” called Ace after me. “You think if I promise you something, it means anything? What are we? Five?”

And suddenly, I was flat on my face in the sand.

I’d been tackled, and Felicity and Connor were right next to me, vampires on their backs, holding them down.

A strong hand on the back of my head pressed my face into the gritty sand. It went into my mouth, and I struggled to breathe.

There was sand in my nostrils, sand between my teeth. I coughed and sputtered.

I reached back with my magic and plucked the vampire off of me. I slammed him down into the ground and got to my feet.

Using magic again, I yanked the two goons off of Felicity and Connor.

I pointed at the ocean.

They sailed through the air and dropped down into the waves.

Ace Gonzales was coming for me.

I ran for him, yelling over my shoulder. “Felicity! Connor! Get out of here!”

Gonzales held out both his hands.

I stopped in my tracks. Well, there. Hold on. Mr. Ace had some magic, then, did he? Had he bought some dragon blood? That bastard. I wasn’t going to let him get by with that.

I touched my talisman and then I waved my hand.

His magic shattered under mine.

He screwed up his face, fingers splayed, reaching for me.

I felt the magic hit me, stronger than before. It was a tendril of power, and it was wrapping its way around my neck.

I touched my talisman again.

But the tendril was tightening quickly, and I had been coughing and choking on sand. I gasped, stopping to double over.

Ace sneered. “You’re not so tough after all. I’m going to squeeze the life out of you, you dragon bitch.”

I shut my eyes, scrabbling for my talisman. I closed my hand around the two claws.

The magic inside me roared to life. The tendril of power at my neck snapped.

I straightened, and I headed for Gonzales.

He tried again, throwing more magic at me.

I waved my hand, diverting it to one side.

Letting out a cry of rage, he simply leaped on me, pushing me down on my back.

I used magic to throw him off.

He leaped on me again. He raked his nails over my face. He bared his fangs, and they glistened in the light of the moon.

That bastard. If he thought that he was going to bite me, he had another thing coming. I hauled back to blast magic at him, and—
“Penny!”

I turned.

Connor was on his back, fighting with another vampire. He was struggling.

Damn it. I diverted the magic, sent it over to send Connor’s attacker skittering.

And then I felt the sharp pain of two fangs breaking the skin of my neck. I shrieked in pain and rage.

Ace was drinking my blood, sucking out my essence, my magic.

I poured power into him, sending him sprawling.

But he got to his feet, laughing darkly. “Ooh, you taste like strawberries, sweetheart.”

I funneled power into him again.

He barely stumbled. “I had a taste of that. I’m even stronger now.” He had drunk my blood and now he was using my own magic against me.

I felt a tiny thread of panic. He didn’t have a chance against me, did he?

I touched my talisman. I shot magic at him.

He staggered, but he didn’t fall down. He started for me, taking one sure step after another.

No fricking way. I wasn’t letting this asshole do this to me. He had drunk my blood. He had hurt Connor. He didn’t deserve any mercy at all.

I felt the fire swell within me again. It burned its way up my core, past my throat and through my lips. I roared it out at him.

The fireball hit his stomach, and he began to scream.

I stumbled backwards.

I expected the other vampires to try to help their leader, but they all just ran from his burning form.

Ace screamed and stumbled and screamed and stumbled.

And then he fell. He was silent.

The flames kept climbing, but he stopped moving.

I felt queasy. I’d just burned him to death.

And then it was pandemonium, everyone running in all directions.

Sirens blared in the distance.

“Penny!” yelled Felicity.

I couldn’t move. I had killed him.
Killed
him. I had never killed anything before.

Well, maybe bugs. Maybe a few plants. But other than that…

“Penny!”

“Go,” I yelled to her. “Get out of here. I’ll meet you.” I couldn’t stop looking at the burning ash. At all that was left of Ace Gonzales, a truly horrible man.

But a man that was gone from this earth because of me.

I swallowed.

*

“Penny Caspian?” said the police officer.

I hadn’t moved. I was staring woodenly at the ashes of Ace Gonzales. “Uh, that’s me.”

“We’d like to ask you a few questions,” said the officer.

“Okay,” I whispered. “Go ahead.” What the hell? Was I a murderer? Did I need a lawyer?

I didn’t even really have a lawyer. There had been a family lawyer for the Caspian family, but I wasn’t sure if he would work for me, considering that I had been disowned from the family. How else did a person find a lawyer, anyway? Online? Would they let me use my phone to call a lawyer?

“Might be easier if we did it down at the station,” said the police officer.

I turned to look at her. “Am I under arrest?”

“Did you do something that you need to be arrested for?” she asked.

I licked my lips. Well. I wasn’t going to answer that question. “I think I want a lawyer,” I said.

She crossed her arms over the chest. “I was only saying it because it’s cold out here, and I don’t feel like freezing my ass off just to do a routine interrogation. But now, you got me curious. So, we’re definitely going down to the station.”

Damn it. My shoulders sagged.

“Come on,” she said. “You can ride in my car.”

I followed her, feeling drained and terrified. I looked around for Felicity and Connor. They weren’t here, were they? I didn’t see them anywhere. Hopefully, they’d run.

If I’d had any sense, I would have run too.

But considering this officer knew my name, I didn’t guess it would have made much difference. She just would have hunted me down at the hotel.

I turned to look back at the pile of ashes one last time.

At least Ace wasn’t going to be bothering anyone anymore. Even if I went to jail, that was a consolation.

“So, Ms. Caspian, why don’t you just go through what happened tonight?” said the officer. We were in an interrogation room, and she’d brought me some coffee, but she hadn’t put enough sugar in it. It was bitter, but I wasn’t going to complain. I just wouldn’t drink it. Anyway, it was too late for coffee. Of course, maybe I was going to be up all night being interrogated by the police.

It was a funny thing. I’d planned on lots of things going wrong with the vamps, but not once had I considered the police showing up.

Where the hell had they been when Ace was terrorizing everyone on the block?

“I don’t know if I should,” I said.

“Why not?”

“Well, everything was pretty confusing. I’m not even really sure exactly what happened anyway.”

“Should I tell you what’s being said about you?”

“Okay,” I said.

“They’re saying you murdered Ace Gonzales in cold blood. By, um, breathing fire.”

“Oh,” I said.

“You’re a dragon, Ms. Caspian.”

“See, I don’t know if I should answer that, either,” I said. “I think I should talk to a lawyer, but I don’t really have one. Is it okay if I look on my phone and try to find someone?”

The officer looked annoyed. “I just want some answers. That’s all. Are you a dragon or not?”

“What if I say no?” I said.

“Are you saying no?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe it’s no one’s business really.”

“It seems to me that if you weren’t a dragon, you’d have no problem denying it, but if you
were
a dragon, you might want to conceal it. Especially if you’re guilty.”

I chewed on my lip. “Um. Well, the thing is that Mr. Gonzales, he was the head of an organized crime ring. A vampire motorcycle gang. They call themselves The Lost Breed. Anyway, I think a guy like that probably has a lot of enemies. And maybe it would be easier for the guys in his gang to say he was burned to death by a dragon than to admit that he was just shot in the back by someone.”

“Well, we haven’t actually found his body,” said the police officer.

“Well, there you go,” I said. “Maybe he’s not even dead.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You watch a lot of crime television, don’t you?”

“No,” I said. “I just think that if you don’t have a body, and you only have the eye witness testimony of a bunch of drunk vampires who live on the wrong side of the law, then maybe you don’t really have much.”

“Fine,” she said. “So, set me straight, then. What were you doing on the beach with all those criminal drunk vampires?”

I cringed. “Uh… strolling on the beach for leisure?”

“It’s cold outside.”

“And yet the vampires were out there.”

She sighed.

“I like the brisk weather.”

There was a knock on the door.

She sighed again, and then got up to answer the door. She poked her head out, and I couldn’t see who it was. “I’m busy right now, and I don’t need your interrogation expertise.” She waited. The person on the other side of the door said something, but I couldn’t make it out. Then she moved aside, opening the door wider.

Flint walked in. “Hey, there,” he said, grinning at me. “I thought you understood, Penny. It’s okay to tell Rachel here about what you were doing for me.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling very confused.

“Yeah, it’s fine. I said we needed to keep it a secret, but I didn’t mean from other cops.” He turned to the police officer. “Penny is my magical creatures consultant.”

“Your what?” she said.

“I’m helping out with the Dragon Slasher case,” I said.

“Because you
are
a dragon,” she said.

I didn’t say anything. I looked at Flint.

He laughed. “Don’t go broadcasting that, huh?”

“She killed someone, Flint,” she said.

“No, no,” said Flint. “She was working undercover for me. There’s no way she would have done something so conspicuous.”

“People saw a tower of flame—”

“And it was that fire pit they had on the beach,” said Flint. “That Gonzales guy got too close, went up like tinder, and people saw it for miles around.” He grinned easily. “You ever seen a vamp burn up?”

She sighed again. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“Sure it does,” said Flint. “Ms. Caspian is a good, well-meaning citizen who was just doing her civic duty, trying to find out something about those vampires—”

“Since when do you let civilians work undercover?” said the police officer.

He crossed his arms over his chest. “You questioning my methods, Rachel?”

“Maybe,” she said.

He winked at her. “I know I’m the new kid of the block here, but I think what I’ve accomplished—”

“Yeah, you’re a machine, and everyone knows that. You can get confessions like nobody’s business, and you’re closing cases left and right, but that doesn’t mean that you have carte blanche.”

“Actually,” said Flint. “It kind of does. Release Ms. Caspian, or I’ll have a talk with the captain.”

Rachel looked as if she might start breathing fire. “I can’t release her, because I was never holding her.”

“You mean I could have left at any time?” I said.

Flint held out his hand to me. “Come on, Penny. Let’s go.”

I let him help me up, and we walked out of the room.

*

Flint drove me home, but he didn’t speak during the entire drive. I tried to thank him the minute we got out of there, but he shut me down. And his whole demeanor changed. He’d been charming and easy with Rachel, a nice southern boy who winked and sweet-talked. The minute we were alone, a storm cloud descended over him and he wouldn’t even look at me.

While we drove, he clutched the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles were white.

Several times, he took a deep breath, as if he was going to say something, but then he let it out, shaking his head.

He was pissed.

When we got back to the hotel, I turned to him inside the car. “Listen, Lachlan, I really appreciate what you did back there.” I thought using his first name might soften him up a little bit.